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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26839675">Always a First Time in Everything</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamelesslyNightlock/pseuds/NamelesslyNightlock'>NamelesslyNightlock</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>5+1 Things, Banter, Bickering, Bonding, Booker | Sebastien le Livre is Part of the Team, Cronuts, Determined Nile Freeman, Family Fluff, Feels, Firsts, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Happy Ending, Humor, Immortality, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani and Nicky | Nicolò di Genova Acting Like a Married Couple, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani and Nicky | Nicolò di Genova are in Love, M/M, Meaning of Life, Nile Freeman &amp; Nicky | Nicolò di Genova Friendship, Nile Freeman is So Done, Post-Canon, Romantic Fluff, Soft Booker | Sebastien le Livre, Soft Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Team as Family, minor blood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:41:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,499</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26839675</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamelesslyNightlock/pseuds/NamelesslyNightlock</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Nicky came home with a coyote once,” Joe offered.<br/>
<br/>
“It looked like it needed help,” Nicky muttered. “And I’d never seen one before, how was I supposed to know?”<br/>
<br/>
“That doesn’t actually count,” Nile complained. “I said <i>dog</i> grooming.”<br/>
</p><p>—</p><p>…or, five times Nile tries to think of something none of the others have ever done, and one time they explain why she doesn’t have to.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andy | Andromache &amp; Booker | Sebastien &amp; Nile Freeman &amp; Joe | Yusuf &amp; Nicky | Nicolò, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>62</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>600</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Always a First Time in Everything</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So this started because <b>Rabentochter</b> mentioned bullfighting for a totally different idea, and then words just kind of appeared, and I only realised I'd written a 5+1 by accident while I was editing so, I suppose you could say it was a little bit chaotic all round.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>—1—</p><p>“Bullfighting.”</p><p>Nicky glanced up from the book he had been reading to see Nile standing over him, a look of complete and utter triumph in her eyes.</p><p>“I thought you wouldn’t be the kind of person who approves of bullfighting,” Nicky said curiously. It really didn’t seem like the sort of thing she would like. It wasn’t something that <em>Nicky</em> liked, to be honest, and he’d been around while it was far more popular than it was in the present.</p><p>“Doesn’t matter if I approve or not,” Nile replied. “Am I <em>right?”</em></p><p>Nicky considered her for a moment. This wasn’t the first time Nile had done this—very, <em>very</em> far from it, yet every time was different. Her attempts had grown steadily wilder, and he had given up trying to guess what she would come out with next. To be entirely honest, he was rather impressed by her persistence.</p><p>It would almost be a shame to give her the answer.</p><p>
  <em>Almost. </em>
</p><p>“Well?” she asked, impatient.</p><p>Nicky arched a brow. “Joe,” he called, glancing over to where his love was seated on the couch, watching a football match with Booker. “Do you remember Seville?”</p><p>Joe barely glanced away from the screen. “Which time in Seville?”</p><p>“Late 1700s, maybe? When you decided that you wanted to—”</p><p>“Nicolò,” Joe said, drawing out the syllables of Nicky’s name in a manner that only Joe ever could—and this time, he turned so sharply that he nearly knocked Booker off the couch. “I thought we agreed to never speak of that again.”</p><p>Nicky grinned, and turned back to Nile.</p><p>She threw up her hands. “Fine, whatever,” she groaned. “I’ll get you guys eventually.”</p><p>Nicky just smiled, and went back to his book.</p><p>It was one he hadn’t read before, from a new up and coming author. He was looking forward to reaching the end.</p><p>—2—</p><p>They were in the middle of a mission when Nile came up with her next idea.</p><p>“Dog grooming,” she said, snapping her bloodied fingers.</p><p>Joe turned to her with an expression of such complete disbelief that despite the circumstance, Nicky found it hard not to smile.</p><p>“<em>Dog grooming?”</em> Joe asked. The last time Nicky had heard him so bewildered was during the emergence of postmodernism. “What on earth about this situation made you think of <em>dog grooming?”</em></p><p>Nile glanced down to the corpse whose pockets she was currently searching. “I’m trying to distract myself. Something you’re trying to do too, apparently. You’re not getting out of this, answer the question!”</p><p>There was a beat of silence, interrupted only by the sounds of hands riffling through dead guys’ pockets.</p><p>Then—</p><p>“Nicky came home with a coyote once,” Joe offered. Nicky turned to glare—that had to be payback for Nicky bringing up Seville, when Joe had been mauled by a bull and then spent a whole day pretending to be dead until Nicky could break him out of the morgue.</p><p>“It looked like it needed help,” Nicky protested. “And I’d never seen one before, how was I supposed to know?”</p><p>“As interesting as that story sounds, and as much as I want to hear more—that doesn’t actually count,” Nile complained. <em>Thank you, Nile. </em>“I said <em>dog</em> grooming. So if it was actually a coyote, then—”</p><p>“Don’t tell me you’re forgetting Verlaine,” Andy interrupted, clearly exasperated.</p><p>Joe snorted, Booker froze, and Nicky grinned. </p><p>Nile squinted. “The poet?”</p><p>“No,” Joe said, his voice bright with laughter. “The <em>poodle.”</em></p><p>“He did need a lot of grooming,” Nicky recalled.</p><p>“Hey, fuck you guys,” Booker muttered. “He was a good dog.”</p><p>“He <em>ate</em> Andy’s <em>labrys,”</em> Joe replied. “Don’t you—”</p><p>“He only chewed the handle,” Booker defended. “It was <em>fine.</em>”</p><p>“Oh my god,” Nile groaned—</p><p>“Found it!” Andy grinned as she held up the USB drive they had all been searching for. “Come on guys, time to move out.”</p><p>Booker still looked a little put out, so Nicky gave him a pat on the shoulder as he went past, and received a small smile in response.</p><p>“Imagine if Verlaine had been here today,” Nicky said. “He would have loved digging through those pockets.”</p><p>“Yeah, he would have,” Booker chuckled—and Nicky smiled. He thought it might have been the first time he’d heard Booker laugh since they’d brought him back into the fold.</p><p>It was nice to hear, after all that time.</p><p>—3—</p><p>“What about—”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Joe, you don’t even know what I was going to say!”</p><p>“We’re watching a movie about cheerleaders. You’re about to ask if we’ve ever made a human pyramid. And the answer, of course, is yes.”</p><p>Nile spluttered, and turned to Nicky with a pleading expression. Nicky wasn’t the one who replied.</p><p>“Catalonia,” Booker explained. “They have a festival.”</p><p>“Do you guys just do <em>everything</em> in Spain?” Nile asked. “What the hell.”</p><p>“I haven’t groomed a dog in Spain,” Joe teased, his grin wide. “At least, I think I haven’t. Nicky, have we—”</p><p>“You guys are no fun at all.” But despite her words, Nile’s smile was amused as she stood up from the couch. “Excuse me. I’m just going to go and Google some obscure hobbies.”</p><p>“Oh, Nile, that’s not going to help,” Nicky called after her.</p><p>“Yeah, we’ve done that a few times, to stave off the boredom,” Booker added. “Assume we’ve done all the things on lists of extreme activities.”</p><p>“Thanks for the tip, assholes,” Nile replied, flipping the bird over her shoulder as she left the room.</p><p>Nicky sighed, though he couldn’t quite rid himself of his grin as he said, “Shame. She’s going to miss the rest of the movie. It seems decent.”</p><p>“I haven’t seen it before,” Joe shrugged. “But, you know what? I <em>would</em> be curious to see what you looked like in one of those outfits.”</p><p>Booker, used to such conversations happening out in the open by now, merely groaned and reached for the remote to turn up the volume.</p><p>Or perhaps, Nicky wondered as the chanting of ‘<em>Be, aggressive’ </em>echoed through the room—perhaps he was just trying to send a message.</p><p>But, Nicky didn’t ponder it further. Instead, he turned to face Joe with a smirk, leaning close enough that their lips brushed together.</p><p>“You want me to wear one of those skirts?” Nicky asked. “That’s different. I’ve never dressed as a cheerleader for you before.”</p><p>“Well you know,” Joe breathed. “There always needs to be a first time.”</p><p>Nicky grinned at that, then leaned forward to kiss him again—and only stopped when a pillow came flying from Booker’s direction and whacked against his head.</p><p>—4—</p><p>“Okay, I’ve got it this time,” Nile said.</p><p>It was the middle of dinner, and they all looked up curiously, mouths full of various amounts of pasta.</p><p>“Oh?” Nicky asked, curious.</p><p>“Yes. Because there is no freaking way,” Nile continued, “That <em>any of you</em> have ever been to <em>Disneyla—”</em></p><p>“California,” Andy said. “1956.”</p><p>“Jesus Mary and <em>fucking</em> Joseph—”</p><p>“Hey,” Joe complained.</p><p>“You’re lying,” Nile groaned. “No <em>way</em> you went to Disneyland—”</p><p>“We did,” Nicky confirmed. “Andy claimed there was something fishy going on, but we all know she just wanted to go on the Snow White ride.”</p><p>“I enjoyed the movie,” Andy shrugged, not sounding ashamed in the slightest.</p><p>Though, to be fair, even Nicky remembered the awe of watching the moving cartoon up on the big screen for the first time. It was still something of a pastime of his, dragging Joe to the cinema to stare in awe at the things people could create from nothing.</p><p>It never failed to surprise, and never failed to entertain—</p><p>Well, except for perhaps the new Lion King movie. The old one, in Nicky’s opinion, was superior <em>by far.</em></p><p>—5—</p><p>“Knitting?”</p><p>“Nicky makes excellent beanies.”</p><p>Nicky grinned at both the compliment and Nile's accompanying groan, meeting Joe’s eyes over his mug of coffee. “I can’t have you getting cold in winter, amore mio.”</p><p>“I need only your embrace to keep me warm at night, hayati.”</p><p>“You guys are disgustingly adorable. Nine hundred years and you’re still in your honeymoon period, aren’t you?”</p><p>Nicky’s grin widened, as did Joe’s. Nile didn’t need to hear that when they were together, every moment felt new, every touch a breath of fresh air, every kiss as bright as their very first—perhaps even brighter, for their love never seemed to stop growing.</p><p>—+1—</p><p>“What,” Andy said haltingly, “the fuck, is <em>that?”</em></p><p>Nicky paused, and turned back to look at where Andy had stopped on the sidewalk. She was staring into the window of a bakery, her brow creased into a curious frown.</p><p>The others, Nicky included, all moved closer, following her gaze toward the display in the window.</p><p>“Oh,” said Nile. “That’s a cronut. You’ve never had one before?”</p><p>“What’s a cronut?” asked Nicky, wrinkling his nose. It didn’t <em>sound</em> particularly appetising, but then, he supposed he had eaten plenty of odd things in his life. It couldn’t be as bad as when he and Joe had to survive on—</p><p>“They’re a cross between a croissant and a doughnut, I think,” Booker replied. “I’ve heard of them, but I haven’t tried one.”</p><p>“Okay, no,” said Nile, holding up her hands. “You guys are <em>not</em> telling me that you’ve never had a cronut? Okay, this is something that needs to be remedied, we need to—”</p><p>She stopped.</p><p>“Wait.”</p><p>Nicky watched as realisation blossomed across her expression, blooming right alongside her smile.</p><p>“Oh my god. You guys… have never eaten a <em>cronut!”</em></p><p>Joe pressed his lips together, and Nicky knew that he was holding in a laugh. Nicky was grinning as well, and Booker was chuckling into his hand.</p><p>Andy, meanwhile, rolled her eyes—though Nicky knew her well enough to see her amusement. “At this rate, we’ll never eat one,” she said. “Are we going to go in or not?”</p><p>But Nile didn’t seem to be listening.</p><p>“I got you!” she exclaimed, her laugh wide enough to show her teeth. “God, of all the things—I thought it would be something huge, or weird, not—<em>cronuts,</em> the hell. But I’ll take it! Come on guys, I’m buying!”</p><p>Nicky let out a laugh, and shook his head as he followed her. Joe caught his hand as he walked past, and Booker and Andy came in close behind.</p><p>The small bakery was crowded with all five of them inside, but Nile was already at the counter, chatting excitedly with the seller. They soon each had a paper bag in their hands, and made their way toward the park on the corner of the street.</p><p>Nile was quite clearly barely containing her excitement, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet as they all sat on benches and unwrapped their snacks, her own bag mostly forgotten.</p><p>It was interesting, the way she watched them. Nicky <em>had</em> wondered why she had been so fixated on discovering something that none of them had ever done before, but he hadn’t yet actually asked.</p><p>At least now, it seemed she had managed to find what she had been looking for.</p><p>Focusing back on the matter at hand, Nicky considered his cronut for a moment. It looked a bit like a scone that had seen a few too many years, all wrinkled with a hole in the middle and icing on top, the entire thing then dusted with sugar.</p><p>He shrugged, and took a bite.</p><p>“It’s… not bad,” he said, frowning a little. “Bit sweet, maybe?”</p><p>“If you don’t like it, I’ll have the rest of yours,” Joe replied. He was somehow already finished, licking sugar and icing off his fingers—and Nicky allowed himself to watch the slow swipes of Joe’s tongue for a moment before handing over the rest of his cronut. More than worth it, if it meant Joe would do <em>that</em> again. </p><p>“I love it,” Andy replied, her words a little muffled by the mouthful of food.</p><p>“Croissants are meant to be savoury,” Booker contributed—but Nicky noticed that he’d already eaten half of his and showed no sign of slowing down.</p><p>“Aren’t you going to eat yours, Nile?” Nicky asked, noticing that her bag remained unopened.</p><p>“I will,” Nile said, and she even started to take her cronut out of the bag as she did so. “I’ve had them before, though.”</p><p>“I’m not surprised.” Nicky considered for a moment. “Hey, Nile? Why were you so determined to find something new for us? Is it curiosity?”</p><p>Nile ducked her head. “Well…”</p><p>“Come on, Nile,” Joe prompted. “We’ve all been wondering.”</p><p>“Well it’s just that you guys have been showing me so much stuff, taken me to so many places,” she said. “And it’s been <em>great,</em> I’ve loved every moment. You’ve seen so many of my firsts, but you’ve all been alive for <em>centuries.</em> I guess… I just wanted to return the favour. I should have realised it would be pretty hard to do.”</p><p>Nicky exchanged a glance with Joe, before turning back to Nile.</p><p>“It’s not that there’s a place we haven’t been to, or a sight we haven’t seen,” Nicky said. “It’s that the way we experience things will always change. I could walk the same street every day, but the things I see, the sounds I hear will never be exactly the same.”</p><p>“He’s right,” Booker added. “Living forever doesn’t mean that time is unlimited. Just because we’re always here, it doesn’t mean that we can do <em>everything.</em> Sure, we can travel the world, complete all the lists the internet has to offer—but the big experiences aren’t the only things out there.”</p><p>“Think about a new book,” Nicky supplied. “Or a new kind of coffee.”</p><p>“A cronut,” Joe grinned, holding up the remains of his second one. Then he entwined the sticky fingers of his other hand with Nicky’s, and as Nicky met his gaze Joe added— “A touch, or a <em>smile.”</em></p><p>“You have to look for newness in the little things, Nile,” Booker finished. “Otherwise, you’ll drive yourself mad.”</p><p>There was a beat of silence.</p><p>Then, <em>almost</em> predictably—</p><p>“Did Booker just lead an inspirational speech?” asked Joe. “Something that wasn’t entirely gloomy?”</p><p>“Well,” said Andy, her smile almost soft. “I suppose there really is a first time for everything.”</p><p>Nicky laughed at that, shifting slightly to the side so that he could knock his shoulder against Joe’s.</p><p>“Wow,” said Nile. “So you guys… really do still experience stuff for the first time.”</p><p>“I’d say it’s impossible to do <em>everything,”</em> Andy shrugged. “The world is constantly changing. Sometimes fast enough that it’s easy to feel like you don’t belong. There’s always something you haven’t tried.”</p><p>“Like how Nicky has never tried American pizza,” Joe supplied.</p><p>“And nor do I want to,” Nicky added quickly, nudging Joe again and receiving a crooked grin in return. “I think <em>that</em> is a first I can do without.”</p><p>And when Nile laughed, light and happy, Nicky thought it might have been the first time that he had ever seen her look quite so bright.</p>
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